Description
Scarce first edition, first printing of The Flagship by Fitch W. Taylor in a fine binding.
Octavo, [two volumes], 388pp; 406pp. Three-quarter navy blue morocco, light blue cloth boards, gilt ruling to covers. Title in gilt on spine, five raised bands with gilt-ruled compartments. Marbled endpapers, top edge gilt. Red ribbon bookmarks sewn in. Bound by Root & Son. No additional printings listed on copyright page. Solid text block, faint foxing to title page, not affecting text, a touch of rubbing to joints. Volume I with frontispiece and tissue. Both volumes have original cloth spines preserved on rear flyleaves and bookplates of Thomas W. Lawson on verso of front free endpapers.
Senior Chaplain of the U.S. Navy Fitch W. Taylor (1803-1865) was first a minister for the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Maryland. During his twenty-four years of service in the U.S. Navy, Taylor circumnavigated the globe aboard the USS Columbia, one of the first U.S. naval ships to make such a voyage. The Flagship details his experiences aboard this vessel.
The bookplates in these volumes belonged to Thomas W. Lawson (1857-1925), a controversial Boston businessman who promoted and manipulated stocks, primarily in the copper market.
